Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART]

by Matt Silverman

Remember all of the Super Bowl banter — the smack talk, the color commentary, and the commercial cheers/jeers — that filled your Twitter feed last weekend? Turns out it didn’t hold a candle to the Holy Trinity of American pop: Britney, Gaga and Bieber. The anticipated release of Spears’ new album generated so much tweetable heat that it stayed in the top 10 trends for seven days straight, and lands the number one spot on our list this week.
Only then does the Super Bowl make an appearance at number two, followed very closely by Lady Gaga at number three, whose newest single just “dropped” (as the kids say) this past Friday. And Justin Bieber’s fans sent his name into the number four slot with a frenzy of tweets about his upcoming 3D movie.
And the latest news from the tenuous situation in Egypt? The topic, after its last few weeks in the social media spotlight, has fallen to number 10 on this week’s chart, despite the country’s ongoing political developments.
For the full list of top trends, check out the chart below, compiled by our friends at What the Trend. Because this is a topical list, hashtag memes and games have been omitted from the chart.
You can check past Twitter trends in our Top Twitter Topics section, and read more about this past week’s trends on What The Trend.

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Top Twitter Trends This Week: 2/4 – 2/10

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Watch All 61 Super Bowl Ads in 2.5 Minutes [VIDEO]

by Charlie White

 

Was it a good year for Super Bowl commercials or not? Take a couple of minutes (2:24 to be exact) and watch parts of all 61 spots shoehorned into this tightly edited masterpiece, and then let us know.
While you’re trying to recall each one of the ads racing by, sit back and enjoy the editing work of Adweek‘s Matt McBrayer, who cut thousands of shots down to this exquisitely manageable size.
In case you missed our Super Bowl Advertising Play-by-Play, one of our many conclusions was that there was plenty to love in this year’s Super Bowl, with certain themes coming to the fore. That must have been thinking of Adweek‘s video editor when he created this spectacular montage, grouping the shots into categories.
So now that you have the perspective of a few days, after this quick recap, which Super Bowl spot was your favorite? Are any more memorable than the others?

Twitter Set New Tweets Per Second Record During Super Bowl

by Lauren Indvik

Twitter users set a new tweets per second record during the Super Bowl Sunday, the microblogging service announced Wednesday.
At 10:07:16 p.m. ET — one of the final moments of the game — 4,064 tweets were sent, the highest number of tweets sent in a single second during a sporting event.
That’s a healthy jump over the 3,283 tweets per second set during the World Cup in June 2010. Twitter users actually broke that record six times over the course of the game, Twitter disclosed in a blog post. The second-highest peak occurred when Usher made a surprise appearance during the Black Eyed Peas‘s halftime show performance.
Despite the Twittersphere’s intense interest in the game, it still wasn’t enough to break the all-time record of 6,939 tweets per second, which was set shortly after midnight on New Year’s Eve in Japan.

“Rio” Super Bowl Ad Features “Angry Birds” Hidden Level Clues

by Christina Warren

As announced earlier last week, the Angry Birds got a cameo in a Super Bowl ad Sunday night.
In the 20th Century Fox spot for the upcoming computer-animated film, Rio, Angry Birds fans were directed to a special hidden egg on level 13-12 of the best-selling mobile phone game.

This level is part of the new Angry Birds update that hit iPhone and Android devices earlier this weekend. Fans that unlock the hidden egg will be treated to a Super Bowl-themed secret level.
The clue comes at the 26 second mark in the ad for Rio, which you can watch below.



If you want to uncover the special golden egg — go to that level and shoot a white bird backwards and then drop an egg. This will unlock a new football-shaped golden egg in the Golden Egg menu in the game.
Complete that game level and players will have the opportunity to enter a contest to attend the Rio movie premiere.
In addition to offering up a special Super Bowl-themed level and the contest for the movie premiere, Rovio will also be offering a special Rio version of Angry Birds in conjunction with the film’s March 22, 2011 release date.

If it's really priced at $800, Motorola's Xoom won't stand a chance against iPad

By Sam Diaz

Just for the record: an $800 price tag on the Motorola Xoom - the first tablet PC running Android 3 (aka Honeycomb) - is way too high.

Details are leaking out today, via a post on Engadget, that Best Buy will start selling the Xoom on Feb. 24 for $799.99. And it appears that there will be some tiered pricing on Verizon’s 3G data plans for the device, ranging from $20 per month for up to 1 GB of data to $80 per month for up to 100 gigs. Mind you, there’s no mention of the pricing for the 4G data usage on this device, which will be 4G upgradeable.

Image Credit: Engadget

In a post after Google’s Honeycomb preview event last week, I noted that the Xoom - or any Honeycomb-powered tablet, for that matter - could be a serious contender to Apple’s iPad if the experience is just as good as the iPad’s. But I also noted that pricing would be key. If it can beat the iPad on price, consumers who like what they see in Android may be compelled to choose Honeycomb over iPad. If the price comes in too high, consumers might not be willing to buy into the hype, choosing instead to go with an established winner - the iPad.

The $800 price tag on the Best Buy ad is $300 more than Apple’s $500 WiFi -only low-end iPad. Make it a 3G-powered iPad and you’re looking at $629 - still a $170 cheaper than the Xoom.

Can you say D.O.A?

That’s what the Xoom will be - Dead On Arrival - if it’s really priced that high. Granted, we don’t know that to be true. There doesn’t seem to be any confirmation yet from Motorola, Google or Verizon - the big names that all appeared on the Xoom’s debut ad during the Super Bowl. (By the way, the commercial, which I’ve embedded below, left everyone at my Super Bowl party with a head-scratching “huh?” as we watched. Kind of a deep message for a Super Bowl ad, if you ask me.)

For the record, I like what the Xoom brings to the table. It appears - just from what I know - to be a top-notch product with a lot of potential. Add to it the 4G capabilities, the expandable storage and, yeah, even Flash, and you’ve got a product that can really make potential iPad buyers stop and pause.

But none of that will matter when all is said and done because that price tag will likely send some consumers - myself included - straight for the Apple store before anyone can even say “microSD card.”

As soon as we get official word on pricing and availability, we’ll be sharing the details with you.

VW Tops List of Most-Viewed Super Bowl Ads on YouTube

 by Todd Wasserman

Volkswagen’s “The Force” ad was a force to be reckoned with on YouTube. The ad, which was uploaded a few days before the Super Bowl, is now up to 16.4 million views, topping the list of the most-viewed Super Bowl ads on YouTube by far.

YouTube’s metrics are not necessarily the final word, though. For one thing, some ads, like the Doritos and the HomeAway spots included on the list, had been on YouTube for a few weeks before the game. Secondly, discussion about the spots via social media may be a better overall indicator of an ad’s impact.

VW’s other Super Bowl ad, “Black Beetle,” came in second place with 1.9 million views. The rest of the list includes:

• Chrysler, “Imported from Detroit” 1.2 million views
• Doritos, “Pug Attack” 1.1 million views
• Doritos, “The Best Part” 568,000 views
• Best Buy, “How Many Gs?” 540,000 views
• Kia, “One Epic Ride” 534,000 views
• Lipton Brisk, “Eminem” 523,000 views
• Motorola, “Empower the People” 514,000 views
• HomeAway, “Test Baby” 469,000 views

Social Media: The Final Piece of the Super Bowl Advertising Puzzle

by Patrick Kerley

From Mean Joe Greene’s Coca-Cola spot, to the “Bud Bowl,” to last night’s cameos by Kenny G, Joan Rivers, and Eminem, advertising has long been as big a part of Super Bowl Sunday as the game itself. Most years, we’re treated to ads that one-up what we’ve previously seen and contribute just as much to the Monday morning water cooler conversation as any big play or touchdown celebration.
This year, however, the major evolution didn’t come in the form of ever-racier attention grabbers or production values that would make James Cameron nod with approval. It came in the form of social media tie-ins that advertisers designed to keep consumers engaged long after the Super Bowl hangover fades.

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The Highlight Reel

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Super Bowl XLV marked not only an end to the NFL season, but also the conclusion of weeks-long advertising efforts aimed at boosting consumers’ online engagement with the brands they are partial to. The budgets and levels of sophistication employed in these campaigns ranged widely, but all had the same goal: to transform singular media impressions into the longer-term customer relationships that all businesses covet.
Papa John’s, for example, sponsored a campaign that promised a free large pizza to anyone registered on its website if game went into overtime. In coordination with its Super Bowl marketing strategy, Mercedes gave away two cars during its “Tweet Race to the Big Game,” a Twitter-inspired race to Dallas.
Others took simpler steps to turn Super Bowl excitement into social media buzz. Volkswagen’s “The Force” commercial and the Motorola Xoom’s Apple-inspired/parodying ad were both teased on YouTube and generated significant attention from bloggers, the mainstream media, and consumers before the game even kicked off.
It is also worth mentioning that some marketers even made social media integration a key selling point for their products and services. Amidst a sea of automobile commercials highlighting traditional features such as luxury, power, and value, Chevrolet plugged the real-time Facebook status update feature of its new Cruze.

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The Passing Game: Social Media Integration Modernizes Traditional Advertising

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For years now, there has been a clear incentive for marketers to utilize social media as a significant element of their advertising efforts. Those incentives are only amplified when considering the massive costs associated with generating an impression during the Super Bowl. The average cost of a 30-second spot for this year’s game was reported to be anywhere from $2.5 to $2.8 million. While this is by no means a record, it is still a substantial sum that underscores the just how important it is for advertisers to access the Super Bowl’s relatively captive audience.
When making such a significant expenditure, companies naturally expect an equally significant return. And today, social media tie-ins are one of the most effective ways to maximize the positive impact of a Super Bowl commercial.
Just as the invention of the forward pass changed football forever, the advent of social media has change the advertising game, and marketers must react accordingly. As such, Super Bowl spots, some of which fade into obscurity the moment the next ad dominates our attention, need to be seen as on-ramps toward continued consumer engagement in the digital space (which is where many consumers spend the time they once devoted to television).
Whether the goal is increased registration on an e-commerce portal, more visits to a corporate YouTube profile, or growing the number of friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter, Super Bowl advertising — and all TV advertising for that matter — is now not just about the product or service itself; it’s also about identifying ways to ensure that the audience remains attentive for the long haul. By using TV as a springboard to consumer engagement via social media, smart marketers are doing just that.

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Post-Game Breakdown: What’s Next for Television Advertising

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As DVRs, on-demand programming, and a la carte paid options (e.g., iTunes) continue to take hold, consumers are seeing fewer ads on a day-to-day basis. That means destination television — such as the Super Bowl — has become even more important turf for TV advertisers to dominate.
Top dramas in prime time, season finales, and major sporting events — programming that draws people together to watch in real time — represent what are perhaps the last windows of uninterrupted and unavoidable ad viewing. As such, these limited opportunities need to be leveraged to their full potential; not just with witty one-liners and movie-quality CGI, but with the carefully orchestrated social media integration that keeps consumers coming back.

How the Social Media World Reacted to Super Bowl Ads [STATS]

by Lauren Indvik

It was a good year for Super Bowl commercials all around, according to data released the day after the big game.

Online discussion about Super Bowl commercials increased 9% in the 12-hour period following the game’s start, compared to last year, according to marketing agency Zeta Interactive. Most discussion focused on the game itself, followed by ads, Christina Aguilera’s rendition of the national anthem, and the Black Eye Peas’s halftime show.

Discussion was also significantly more positive than last year overall. Online consumers’ expectations for the commercials were relatively low leading up to the game; of the many discussions occurring across a sampling of messages posted on blogs, social networks, message boards and video sites, 72% were positive. By the time the game started, however, sentiment had risen to 83% — a substantial improvement from 2010, when overall buzz around the commercials was 79% positive.

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Most-Discussed Spots

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According to the social media analytics tool Trendrr, Chrysler’s “Detroit/Eminem” was the most buzzed-about spot, at least on Twitter, where users cited the commercial 19,781 times during the hour it premiered. Disney’s teaser for Transformers 3 was the second most popular ad, with 18,215 tweets in the first hour. Doritos’s fan-created commercials garnered 15,800 tweets in the first hour of the game and 15,050 in the second collectively.

The ad that generated the most positive reaction was Bridgestone’s “Reply All,” says Zeta Interactive. Ninety-four percent of online discussion about the spot was positive, followed by Pepsi Max’s “First Date” (92% positive), Volkswagen’s “Darth Vader” (91%), Bridgestone’s “Beaver” (90% positive) and the NFL’s “Happy Days/Best Fans in the World” (90% positive) commercials.

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Most-Replayed Spots

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According to TiVo, the commercial that was replayed most frequently in the 15-minute period after its debut was Snickers’s “Logging,” featuring Richard Lewis and Roseanne Barr, followed by Best Buy’s commercial with Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne (above), and Pepsi Max’s “Love Hurts” spot. Two of Doritos’s three fan-created spots — “The Best Part” and “House Sitting” — held the fifth and seventh spots, respectively.

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Aftermath

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Clearspring, the company that powers AddThis’s sharing platform, mined search and sharing data to determine what brands got the greatest lift from their ads. Posts mentioning Pepsi Max, for instance, received more than a 3,000% increase in shares, followed by Super 8 (~1,700%) and Carmax (~1,100%). Searches for the Chrysler 200 experienced more than a 1,300% increase in searches, followed by Pepsi Max (~950%) and Chatter.com (~900%).

We were personally surprised that Groupon’s spots didn’t make the list. The group-buying site’s commercials were certainly the most-discussed spots at Mashable HQ Monday morning. What commercials did you discuss online and off

iPad takes center stage in The Daily's Super Bowl ad

By Jason D. O'Grady
TechCrunch noted that tonight’s Super Bowl was chock full of commercials from tech companies, including AT&T, Cellular South, SalesForce’s Chatter.com, GoDaddy, Groupon, Verizon, and Motorola’s cheap imitation of 1984.
Although it didn’t buy space directly, Apple was well represented in News Corp’s spot for The Daily
 

Sunday's Super Bowl the most high-tech ever

By Doug Gross, CNN

(CNN) -- It may not be on the minds of hot-wing-chomping sports fans who want to see Clay Matthews clobber Ben Roethlisberger or Hines Ward streak toward the end zone.


But, by all accounts, Sunday's Super Bowl will be the most high-tech ever.From an in-stadium bank of servers storing 100 terabytes of data to an official Super Bowl app for the iPad (which fans will be able to bring into Cowboys Stadium in Dallas), computer technology is almost as integral to this year's game as helmets and shoulder pads.


"Essentially, every event we've had here the last two years has been a dress rehearsal for the next event," Pete Walsh, the Dallas Cowboys' chief technical officer,told Wired, a CNN content partner.
Opened in 2009, the $1.2 billion stadium, which seats more than 100,000, had technology as a prime focus from the beginning.


"When we started this process back in 2004, we were able to meet with different vendors and see their road maps for where technology was going to be in five or more years," Walsh said. "So we were able to take advantage of where technology was going to be rather than where it was."


Nowhere is the high-tech take on the gridiron classic more evident than in the stadium's data center: the bank of servers that support 30 organizations and 90 vendors, concession stands and the like in and around the stadium.


"As fans at home and at the stadium watch the game, most probably won't be looking for evidence of a virtualized server infrastructure with 100-terabyte SAN core," said Thomas E. Richards, president and chief operating officer of tech company CDW, which assisted the Cowboys with the setup. "Instead, they'll notice how great the game looks from the largest high-definition video board in the NFL or how easy it is to use ATM or credit cards at concessions."


The stadium's most visible piece of tech is what's billed as the world's largest high-definition video screen: a $40 million, 600-ton video board with 25,000 square feet of displays. It's 72 feet tall and 160 feet long.


(Everyone seems to like the high-tech board, with the possible exception of NFL punters.)And, consider this as you nestle into your man cave. In addition to the monster screen, there are another 3,500 46-inch high-def screens scattered throughout the rest of the stadium.


A news release from Cisco, which partnered with the Cowboys on technology, including the screens, called the stadium "the most versatile and technologically advanced entertainment venue in all of North American football."


"We needed technology that would provide the ultimate fan experience and enable team operations to run more effectively," said Walsh. "With the new stadium, it was time to upgrade our infrastructure to the next generation and centralize everything in one data center."


The stadium's other big technological marvels are its massive retractable roof and 120-foot-high glass doors -- the largest operable glass doors in the world -- although they won't be much a factor during the game. The NFL announced last month that the roof will be closed during the Super Bowl so the league could have a "singular focus" on logistics.


Other tech at the game
As has become custom the past couple of years, Super Bowl officials will use GPS tracking devices to keep an eye on players, performers and even the Lombardi Trophy during their travels to and from the stadium.


The stadium will be equipped with free Wi-Fi for the fans in attendance, not to mention the teams themselves and the hordes of media covering the game. All major wireless companies have ramped up their signals around the stadium, too, to make sure their customers don't lose service.


AT&T says it has broken data-usage records at every event held at the massive stadium. Cowboys Stadium already has one of the largest distributed-antenna systems in the country, and AT&T has spent more than $10 million in network enhancements there, a spokeswoman said.


Super Bowl apps


Sunday will be the first Super Bowl since the advent of modern tablet computers -- in particular Apple's iPad. And the NFL has wasted no time, offering a free Super Bowl app on the device and a similar app for devices running Google's Android system.


Geared toward people attending the game, the app (Apple's is also compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch) includes a 3-D map of North Texas with restaurant and bar locations, a tool to find parking, concessions and restrooms at the stadium, and the ability to see who else is at the game via mobile check-in apps.


ESPN and USA Today are among the media outlets that have developed their own game-specific apps.Then, for the millions who really care only about the Super Bowl for its commercials, there's AdBowl.


The iPhone app, which complements a website started in 2001, lets users rate each commercial, with real-time results tallied to show which were hits and which ones flopped.


"Since AdBowl first launched, we've watched the fascination with high stakes advertising take hold of the nation and not let go," said Steve McKee, president of the company that runs AdBowl, in a written release. "Adding the iPhone app to the mix makes it easier than ever for people to vote."


Speaking of the ads ...
The emergence of social media will be obvious in those big-ticket ads.Audi will make some Web history this year, including a Twitter hashtag at the end of its 60-second spot. Twitter users who use the hashtag #ProgressIs become eligible to win a test drive of Audi's R8 supercar and a $25,000 donation to a charity of their choice.
Audi's ad is scheduled for the game's first commercial break. Bridgestone and Mercedes-Benz also are expected to have Twitter tie-ins with their ads.


And, in a move they're surely hoping will be more successful than the glut of dotcom ads the Super Bowl saw in the early 2000s (we're looking at you, pets.com), online coupon sellers Groupon have snagged a spot during the game.